If I would not have embraced the fact I am an intelligent person and opened myself up to different opportunities, I would not have had the ability to experience what I have in just two short years of college. I would not have joined the Research Club to help expand my knowledge and I would not have been able to participate in the research and beyond the class experiences that I have. I even pursued the opportunity to apply for a research assistant internship through Carolinas Medical Center (CMC). Big organizations such as CMC want people who are not afraid to learn new things and present the findings. By embracing and taking advantage of my intelligence, I have been able to experience many things that many college students my age will not be able to say they have done. These experiences will be a major asset for me as I continue to pursue a career in healthcare, further my education, and in future research.
Embracing Rather than Embarrassing
I have always been very academically gifted, even from a young age. From as far back as I can remember to my first year of college I was so embarrassed about my intellectual ability. I did not want anyone to know that I was smart and did not want to be considered a “nerd,” therefore, I never participated in class and pretended like I never knew the answer when I did. When someone saw my grades and found out I was smart, I would get rude remarks and bullied. In my freshman year, I took Human Anatomy & Physiology I and II (BIOL 243 and BIOL 244). During these classes, I distinctively remember multiple students making remarks such as “I wish I didn't have to study as hard unlike you” and “I wish I could not stress every day and just get good grades.” I automatically took these comments as insults and felt like I was looked down upon because I made good grades. Little did these people know, I cried most nights from stress and studied day in and day out to get my good grades.
Embracing my knowledge has helped me find a passion for helping others. Here I am pictured helping a classmate with an assignment for GLD. Pictured from left to right: Mary Fargalla, Margo Lawson, Molly Melton.
At the end of my freshman year, my BIOL 243 professor emailed me about a tutoring opportunity at USC Lancaster. I could tutor for the school and make some money while working around my school schedule and choosing my own hours. I thought this was a great opportunity because I would be able to make my own money and not have to worry about if my work hours would work around my school hours. My only problem was if I tutored for the school people would definitely know me as the school nerd. After almost half a year, I decided I would try tutoring because I really needed to make some gas money. I was very hesitant, especially my first week. On my second day, a student scheduled an appointment for Fundamental Chemistry I (CHEM 101). I was sick to my stomach from being nervous. After the appointment, the student thanked me for all my help and mentioned she was going to begin to make regular appointments with me. It was then when I began to realize that I did not want people to know I was smart because I believed they would look at me in a negative way. In reality, people appreciated my knowledge and were thankful for my help and my ability to teach them things they struggled to understand. I also realized that those comments I received in BIOL 243 were not meant to be an insult, as I had taken them. Instead of being embarrassed by my knowledge, I should embrace it. I tutored that student many times during that semester and now I tutor Human Biology (BIOL 120), Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II (BIOL 243 & 244), Microbiology (BIOL 250), Fundamental Chemistry I and II (CHEM 101 & 102), Basic College Mathematics (MATH 111), Intensive Basic College Math (MATH 111i), Trigonometry (MATH 112), Intro to Statistical Reasoning (STATS 110), Elementary Statistics (STAT 201), Evolution of Nursing Science (NURS 212), and Biophysical Pathology (NURS 216).
Accepting the opportunity to become a tutor for USCL has helped me become a more open person and participate more in class. Here I am pictured outside of the tutoring center at USCL.
In the words of Mead, an individual develops their self-identity and self-consciousness through social processes: the way people look at them, the way people speak of them, the way people act towards them, etc (Schaefer, 2013). In today’s society, there is a major problem with bullying during adolescence and can sometimes continue into adulthood. This bullying can have a major impact on how a person looks at themselves and their abilities. This is why it is so important for someone to understand that instead of being ashamed about a unique feature they might have, they should embrace it and use it to the best of his or her ability. This is very important in the process of research as well. People embrace their unique abilities and put them to use conducting and presenting research. Research is an experimental way to expand your knowledge. The point of research is to question, investigate, and share findings with others in your discipline. It is imperative to share findings and add information to the existing knowledge base. This could potentially even lead to a cure for a disease or a new invention. This is the reason I decided to get involved with campus research. Going into the health care field I wanted to learn more about and expand my knowledge of health and the human body. I joined the Research Club my freshman year and began to talk to and develop better relationships with the teacher mentors, Dr. Sarah Sellhorst and Dr. Elizabeth Easley. I was in Dr. Sellhorst’s BIOL 243 & 244 classes and made really high grades in both courses. Dr. Sellhorst also knew I was very interested in participating in research as an assistant. As a result, I was asked to join the research team in Dr. Sellhorst’s and Dr. Easley’s body composition lab. I took this opportunity to work with these mentors conducting research to expand the knowledge base I already had so I could share it with others in the future.
When I realized that I should embrace my knowledge, I began to participate more in class. I was not afraid to raise my hand when no one else would. My second semester of my sophomore year I had to take an Introduction to Sociology (SOCY 101) class. No one in the class would participate when the teacher asked a question so I would raise my hand and state my opinion. One day in class we were talking about George Herbert Mead’s theory the “Mind, Self, and Society.” He stated that the self is part of your personal identity and it is your self-awareness and your self-image (Schaefer, 2013). To better understand this theory, our teacher made the class do an activity where we wrote our name on a piece of paper and passed the paper to each person in our row. Each classmate was supposed to write something positive about the classmate whose name was on the paper. When I got my paper back a majority of the students wrote that they like how I am not afraid to share my opinion in class and how it shows my confidence. My teacher even stated that I “always contribute to class discussion in positive ways.” This made me further appreciate my unique intelligence.
Wanting to expand my knowledge led me to the opportunity to become a research assistant. One of my many tasks was going through participant files and grading surveys while also recording all of the participants' visceral adipose tissue (VAT) percentage and VAT mass.
1. Schaefer, R. T. (2013). Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.